The separation of water from fluid flows containing water, and thus the recovery of water to save resources, is becoming ever more important. In this context, it is known for example to separate water vapor from waste gas flows. The separated water vapor is conventionally converted to water using cooling-intensive condensation processes. This principle can be implemented by way of surface condensers that are placed in waste gas flows, for example taking the form of tube bundle or plate heat exchangers. For the separation of water vapor from gas flows containing water vapor, membrane bodies that are permeable to water vapor, that is to say are selective to water vapor, have further been proposed, wherein the water vapor permeates out of the gas flow and through the membrane body into a membrane body interior space that is delimited by the membrane body. The propulsive force for the permeation of the water vapor through the membrane body is a reduced concentration of water vapor in the membrane body interior space and/or a vacuum applied in the membrane body interior space and the resulting drop in pressure, in particular a drop in the water vapor partial pressure. The water vapor that has permeated into the membrane body interior space is converted to liquid water by way of cooling-intensive condensation processes.
Consequently, the technical approaches that are known from the prior art to the separation of water from a fluid flow containing water are susceptible to improvement, in particular as regards the need for cooling that is required therefor in the context of condensing the water vapor.